New GPS satellites to ditch Selective Availability
By Nilay Patel 
posted Sep 20th 2007 3:14AM
posted Sep 20th 2007 3:14AM
With the almost-ubiquitous nature of GPS, it's hard to imagine that US government still maintains the ability to degrade the system's resolution or even just turn it off for national security reasons, but every GPS satellite launched to date features what the military calls Selective Availability -- an option that hasn't been used since 2000, but has still been implemented throughout the GPS system. That's about to change, however, as the Pentagon announced yesterday that new GPS satellites will no longer feature SA. No official reason was given other than a "strong commitment to users by reinforcing that this global utility can be counted on to support peaceful civil applications around the globe," but hey -- we'll take what we can get.[Via The Register]
Suuuuuurrre.....
I'm actually inclined to believe this. GPS has become too integral in everyday life. I would completely outraged if the $1200 navigation system in my car was suddenly made useless, as would everyone else who has one. Hell, it's now practically illegal for cellular carriers to sell phones that don't have GPS built-in for E911 purposes. Most of these phones can also take advantage of the GPS for navigation as well.
"Hell, it's now practically illegal for cellular carriers to sell phones that don't have GPS built-in for E911 purposes"
I thought mobile phones could be traced without the need of a GPS receiver.
What part don't you understand about National Security? Need to know basis? If our country is under attack, you'll just have to put up with being lost for a few hours. We'll keep a file on you for the time being. Sorry for the inconvenience.
FOR EYES ONLY
CIA U.S. Regional Headquarters
Constable Odo, Funny that you mention that because the only ones that are going to be attacking the country is the country itself. ...Bin Laden... Give me a break, its a good fairy tale.
Maybe this was in response to the issues that Eurpoe's satellite system was having. Maybe SA was the main reason why Europe wanted it's own system... and now that SA is off, maybe Galileo will fold.
http://www.betanews.com/article/EU_Proposes_Bailout_of_Galileo_Sat_Nav_Project/1190233566
Hardly. EU wants a system, that the US cant shut off.
Hardly. EU wants a system, that the US cant shut off.
this kinda scares me.
i think something BIG is going to happen soon.
Yeah, it's like they think there won't be anyone left who would use GPS against the US anymore...
...
OH SHI-
The comercial war with Galileo is beginning...
Don't worry. GPS has two signals:
1. Commercial (with or without SA)
2. Military (encrypted)
We can still turn off the commercial signal whenever or wherever we want. For the most part, us military guys all have access to the encrypted signal...which is a little better than the best commercial signal anyway.
What truly astounds me is that this multi-billion dollar system, built by and for the US military, now enables any yahoo (worldwide) with basic electronics skills to combine a $100 GPS receiver with a model airplane and make an absolutely accurate cruise missile. Smart weapons available to the common man (or the common jihadist)! I sincerely hope someone smarter than me at the Pentagon has thought this through.
>smarter
>at the Pentagon
'Military intelligence is a contradiction in terms.'
-Groucho Marx
So you understand my concern...
So? that same model airplane can be used to smash my windows. the GPS we have isnt fast enough for a cruize missle, might as well build a rocket propelled fork
it was people who thought like that that made it illegal to own, use or sell a cantenna in california, whats next? our model rockets?
"strong commitment to users by reinforcing that this global utility can be counted on to support peaceful civil applications around the globe,"
Yeah, smells like someone doesn't like the idea of the European Galileo programme stealing their thunder.
...funded by the very people who have to buy GPS hardware to use it!
That's because SA was effectively defeated by differential GPS, which used a stationary transceiver that knows it's location and can send a correction to any receiver capable of using it. Most older handhelds have this ability. Don't know about the newer models.
And, yea, the military P code receivers are much more accurate. Combined with DGPS you can get a millimeter solution.
The GPS allows the cell phone to send a precise area in the case of a emergency, without it the best the cell phone can be found is withing the tower it last pinged, so a difference of miles to feet...
Not exactly. If the phone was seen by more than one tower, the location can be triangulated and a much more accurate location can be determined.
Ya I know, however it is much more accurate with gps.
All this was told to be by a person who works on the towers
The military back in 2000 was ok to turn off SA and this feature hasn't been used since then. The government is only now making it official and any new satellites will not feature SA capability. Even though SA is now rendered inoperative, the US military still has the ability to regionally disrupt GPS signals as it deems fit. I'm sure it wouldn't give up SA so willingly unless there was an alternative in place.
As to Galileo, we won't be seeing it for a while yet. Something that we may see more and more is GLONASS, the Russian based positioning satellite system. After falling into disrepair in the 90s, the Russians are aggressively reactivating their satellites. A number of commercial positioning systems already have GPS/GLONASS capabilities as it offers further positional accuracies.
There is no way this is true - they will turn it off completely or do whatever they want with it at will should the need arise. Any other information to the contrary is completely fabricated for "national security purposes" and as a marketing effort to promote the US system over the rival European and Asian systems out there. They hope that in a few years we will all have forgotten that this capability was ever talked about - until they turn it back on and say "oh, someone must have left in a back door we forgot to tell you about - soooorrrrry!".